The Travails of Travels....

Guutentaag from Frankfurt!! We are in Europe!

Our flight arrived in Frankfurt at 11:20 a.m., just about the time Murray predicted our arrival with the 1 hour delay leaving Vancouver. We then flew right over Fort McMurray. (Natasha and Kara: We asked the pilot to beep his horn when he flew over. Did you guys hear it?)
Our flight went over close to the north pole, and it remained bright and sunny the entire 10 ½ hr trip. Our seats were on the outside of plane, but near the stairs going down to the toilet rooms---yes these were located “downstairs” on the plane-----and people waiting for their turn would take up rather “loud” conversations with other travelers. So we got little sleep on the flight and arrived in Frankfurt quite tired, only to discover that Donna’s backpack got left behind somewhere. So we are waiting for her stuff. But don’t worry, she looks pretty good in Murray clothes as long as she rolls up the legs. Actually Donna was smart enough to exchange sets of clothes between her bag and Murrays....he did not give any pants!

We certainly do hope Donna’s backpack will catch up with us in Frankfurt so we can take it with us when we clear customs in Ukraine. We already learned of other families whose bags did not make it with them, and ended up with missing stuff from their bags because they weren’t present when Ukrainian customs went through them. I’m not so concerned about my clothing and personal items. It’s the adoption related stuff, and stuff we have for the kids that I wouldn’t want to go missing.

We spent the afternoon walking around “Romer” area in Frankfurt; many of the buildings had not been destroyed during WWII, so there are plenty of interesting old buildings to see as we walked around the cobble streets. With little sleep and jet lag, we were wavering in the afternoon, and decided to stop for a coffee. There are lots of bakery style coffee shops in Frankfurt with tasty treats. It was interesting trying to explain to the server that Donna wanted decaf latte and she did not understand. A customer standing next to me called someone and said “decaf”. She got off the phone and said “decaf is impossible”. Okay, let’s add lots of milk to the latte instead! Murray himself is quite into the German beer. PROST!!!